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Parks Associates' research found that an easy-to-navigate UI is crucial for attracting new customers. Asked about UI, 70% of consumer electronics purchasers said ease-of-use was "very important" to them when making a purchase. Ease-of-use is more important to women and older consumers. Apple TV and Roku got strong ratings for their UIs, while Chromecast did poorly.

When looking for something to stream, only 12% use a service's content recommendations as their first step. How ...read more

OTT video is hot. A recent report from Parks Associates predicted that video streaming services will accelerate globally over the next 5 years, with more than 310 million connected households having at least one OTT service by 2024—equating to some 586 million subscriptions overall.

From the article "3 Innovative Technologies for Improving OTT QoE" by Thierry Fautier.

When consumers can get a streaming video service with live channels and an on-demand library for $15 per month, their $80 per month cable or satellite service starts to look like a poor value. That's one finding from Parks Associates, which revealed video OTT and pay TV data today.

Looking at households that have changed their pay TV service in the past year, Parks finds 33 percent of those cutting the cord and 10 percent of those trimming their service see streaming options ...read more

According to the researchers at Parks Associates, 15 percent of all pay TV subscribers in the U.S. with broadband connectivity downgraded to a less expensive service in the last year. Also, 34 percent changed their pay TV service in some way. Other changes include switching to a new TV provider, upgrading to a more expensive service, subscribing to a TV service after not having service for a year or longer, and subscribing to a TV service for the first time.

From the article ...read more

Today, every major television outlet is in the midst of launching or advancing their direct-to-consumer VOD streaming services. Consumers now have more control and choice than ever, and the industry is becoming fiercely competitive in its quest for high-quality content to keep viewers. According to Parks Associates, there are over 200OTT services in the U.S. market, and that number is increasing rapidly.

From the article "The Arrival of OTT Live Video" by Dan Murray.

While much research has been devoted to the amount of subscription and transactional video people watch, less attention has been given to the rest of the video ecosystem—the short-form YouTube and Vimeo clips, or the events live streamed through a browser. Research company Parks Associates sheds light on the area, finding that broadband-enabled homes in the U.S. watch an average of two hours of "alternative content" through a computer each week. Popular sources include Facebook, ...read more

Charting the growth of esports, research company Parks Associates says that 41 percent of esports fans report they would pay for a subscription to watch online events, and 39 percent would pay on a per-event basis. That's going to grow into a huge profit center, as Parks also found that 10 percent of households with broadband connectivity watch esports, while 62 percent of those households play video games at least one hour each week.

From the article "41% of Esports Fans Wo ...read more

If any further evidence was needed that living room streaming is now mainstream, consider the following forecast released today by research company Parks Associates: By 2022, over 265 million households worldwide will subscribe to an over-the-top (OTT) video service. Many of those households will pay for multiple services, so Parks estimates they will have over 400 million subscriptions in total.

Parks has seen a steady increase in the sales of connected TVs and streaming me ...read more